The present invention relates to a system for receiving an order for output of image data taken with a digital camera and the like (an order for photo prints, an order for recording image data to another recording medium and the like).
In recent years, services of printing as photos image data taken with digital cameras and camera-equipped mobile phones and recording such data in recording media such as CD-R, for example, have become prevalent.
In the early days of the prevalence of the above services, the user brought a recording medium having image data taken with a digital camera and the like recorded therein to a service shop asking for printing of the data. The service shop, keeping the recording medium with them temporarily, read the image data from the recording medium, printed the data as photos, and returned the recording medium to the user together with the printed photos.
The above service has the following problem. It is no way to check information on a digital recording medium, such as the number of images recorded, from the recording medium unless such information is visualized with a reader. Moreover, image data can be easily written in/deleted from the digital recording medium. Therefore, when a trouble related to data arose between the user and the service shop, it was difficult to clarify which was responsible for the trouble. Also, many users desired return of their memory cards upon completion of ordering.
To avoid the above problem, presently, an in-shop receiving machine is often used, in which the entire handling of image data until completion of ordering is left to the user. A flow of the order processing with such an in-shop receiving machine is roughly as follows.
The user inserts a recording medium having image data recorded therein into an in-shop receiving machine. According to instructions displayed on the monitor of the machine, the user specifies image data of which printing is desired, together with the size, the number of copies and the like of the image data. The receiving machine reads the specified image data from the recording medium, stores the read image data therein together with the other specified conditions, and issues an order receipt to the user. The user receives the order receipt and the returned recording medium. The image data and the conditions stored in the receiving machine are transferred to a photo processor, where printing of the image data is performed based on the conditions. At a later date, the user receives photo prints in exchange for the order receipt at the shop.
In the order processing with the in-shop receiving machine described above, the user must go through the series of operation including inserting a recording medium into the receiving machine, checking images and entering order conditions for printing. Therefore, one user tends to occupy the receiving machine for a considerably long time, resulting in that other users must queue up in front of the receiving machine or some users who desire ordering may give up ordering, in not a few cases. In particular, such a machine is less likely to be accepted by users who are poor at machine operation, and also, has the risk of causing wrong ordering and damage to the machine due to misoperation.